Acceptance of personal computers is legion both in business and the home. The personal computer is readily adaptable to many environments and its versatility and capacity for information storage, retrieval and manipulation are primary factors leading to its popularity. As recognized, personal computers have evolved to the status of a "tool for modern times".
The primary adjunct of personal computers is floppy diskettes. These are magnetized disks containing information, programs or data files, in machine-readable form for storage, manipulation, viewing or printing. Conventional personal computers incorporate disk drive units having slots and gates adapted for insertion of floppy diskettes to perform the aforementioned functions.
In view of the remarkable popularity of personal computers and diskette use, associated criminal and security problems are now on the rise. Trade in stolen computer hardware and pirating software (the programs) exemplify such activities. An additional activity, which may critically affect the viability of a business, is pirating of proprietary information contained on floppy diskettes. The easiest and least detectable manner to accomplish such pirating is simple copying of the contents of an original diskette onto a new diskette, replacing the original, and absconding with the newly copied diskette.
As the computer hardware and diskettes are commonly located in the same locations, the only required activity for copying entails loading the original diskette into an activated computer and copying it to a new diskette; both relatively silent and fast operations. Information stolen in this manner could prove critical to the survival of a business and its misappropriation irrevocably damaging.
Many solutions to overcome these and other forms of criminal activity have been devised. Software incorporates anti-copy codes. Locking mounting brackets for the hardware and internal system key-locking assemblies like that featured on the IBM-AT.TM. prevent outright theft of the units and unauthorized access to the system, respectively.
Internal locking systems generally are not available for less sophisticated, but far more numerous conventional personal computers. Retrofit installment of such devices requires considerable work and often is not economically justifiable. On the other hand, devices dedicated to render personal computers immovable such as mounting brackets, may secure the unit but are not portable by nature. Moreover, such brackets are somewhat cumbersome to install often leading to disfiguration of associated cabinets and furniture, and do not prevent access to disk drive units.
As can be noted from the foregoing discussion, unauthorized access to computer units may lead to many different problems. However, such access is not limited to the criminal sphere. Particularly when located in the home, unauthorized access may take the form of child's play. The curiosity of a small child is a universal trait and such curiosity may lead to tampering with a home computer. Hence, a child may damage the system or attempt to push objects into a disk drive unit which is not designed to accept such objects.
It is apparent from the foregoing that there exists a need in the art for a device that would serve to prevent unauthorized access and, further, if properly designed, to deter vandalism and outright theft of the unit.